Police investigating claims of abuse by Nongprue police volunteer

Chonburi police have a launched an investigation into allegations a Nongprue police volunteer browbeat two youths with a gun.

Chonburi station superintendent Maj. Gen. Khatcha Thatsart said Dec. 10 he would order Banglamung and Nongprue commanders to investigate the complaint by 49-year-old Somwang Rodkanphai, mother of the 19- and 20-year olds allegedly attacked.

Somwang said her sons Anupong and Aphinant Rermpong were driving home to their Sukh-Aem Village house on Soi Khao Noi when they were stopped near a rail crossing by a police volunteer and a commissioned police sergeant-major.

The two refused a request from the volunteer to search them, arguing that the private citizen had no legal right to do so. The refusal, she said, angered the volunteer, who pulled a pistol from his waste and repeatedly hit the two. Police volunteers are not legally allowed to carry firearms.

The youths were treated at a local hospital and released.

This article was published in the Pattaya Mail newspaper on Friday December 28, 2012 (Vol. XX No. 52).